


Smudged Papers

by sadbabyosborn (arka_r)



Series: Siblings AU [4]
Category: Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Siblings, Aromantic Character, Asexual Character, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Pre-Slash, Queerplatonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-07 04:25:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3161165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arka_r/pseuds/sadbabyosborn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry loves to draw where there are people around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smudged Papers

**Author's Note:**

> i just... don't have excuse for this.
> 
> harry is 17, louise and peter are 15, erica is 14. erica and peter are taking turns to become spider man. louise helps erica making/upgrading spidey's tech.

Harry knocked the door and waited. Faintly, he could make out that upbeat Japanese pop song that Louise loved so much to listen through the thick lab door. He didn’t understand his sister’s fascination with all the things Japanese, but he guessed the song was nice. It made him want to dance along; but never tell his sister that.

 

Louise opened the door, got out, and quickly closed it behind her back. Harry lifted an eyebrow.

 

“Ric and I are doing a very important secret project when you rudely interrupt me so tell me quickly what do you want?” she wanted to know.

 

“Eh, can I get inside? It’s rather lonely in my room”, Harry tilted his head, and before Louise could ramble on, continued. “I will stay in the corner and not disturbing whatever you’re doing.” Then, he lifted his sketchbook that he was holding in one hand. “I just want to draw where there’s people around.”

 

“No”, she glared. And with that short reply, she went back inside and closed the door before he could say anything.

 

Ooh-kay. A very important secret project. With her girlfriend. Sure. If he didn’t know that Louise was just as asexual as he was, that wouldn’t be suspicious at all.

 

Grumbling, Harry walked away. His sister had always been like a fireworks; subtlety was never in her dictionary. Their dad had always said that when she got silent, it was a sure sign that a destruction was in the making. And if his sister and her girlfriend were making a weapon of mass destruction, he wanted to be as far as possible from its radius.

 

As he walked by his dad’s lab, he stopped on his track. Well… why not? He shrugged and tapped the dark-tinted glass with his fingernails.

 

“Son?” his father appeared as the glass became transparent. “What’s wrong?”

 

“Nothing, Dad. I’m just wondering if I can draw here?” Okay, that came with a question mark, because to be honest? His dad used to be quite put off with him doing art. Sure, he had mellowed a bit, but Harry had rather not poke an old wound.

 

“Oh, sure. Get in”, his dad replied. He didn’t know if he should be surprised at that.

 

His dad punched the key to open the sliding glass door. Tentatively, Harry stepped into the storm of holographic displays and looked around. The lab was… perhaps saying a whirlwind of creation was not an exaggeration, though he suspected there was an order in this chaos. Here and there were cluttering trinkets, half finished but not forgotten. Wires were hanging from the ceiling and lying on the floor, waiting to ensnare unsuspecting preys.

 

He rarely had chance to enter his dad’s lab, though he wondered why he’d never done this more often. A sanctuary. It was what it felt like. To his dad, it was a place where he worked, invented, and created. It was like a place of worship, with the interactive table as the altar and the grease as his holy water. The holographic interfaces were adding an ethereal feel to the atmosphere. It was like peeking into his dad’s mind, an experience that was quite exhilarating.

 

“Am I interrupting something?” he asked, following his dad through the jungle of machineries and discarded parts.

 

“Oh, no. Not at all. I was taking coffee break”, his dad replied. “Go sit… maybe…” he turned around and moved things away, causing some items to clatter and crash on the floor. “Oh my—I don’t know. Go sit anywhere you like. I’m really sorry with the clutter. I’d never expect anyone to come for an inspection.”

 

Harry laughed along with his dad. His room was not any better; drawing tools and art supplies and canvases and papers torn from sketchbooks. Comic books. “It’s okay, Dad. I’ll uh… manage”, he said, sitting down on the floor. The grease on his pants would be a murder to be cleaned off later. No matter.

 

His dad was already back on a raised platform at the center of the lab. He was the brain of all wonders happening in this room, the heart that pumped life into his creations. He moved like a conductor of an orchestra, with the holographic displays as his players and numbers and equations as his melody. So Harry started drawing.

 

It was… interesting. He’d never seen his dad like this. Science and math were two things among many that Harry had no interest of. They were more of his dad and Louise’s thing. Harry had never participated in their late night science marathon or science babble over breakfast, choosing to act as a silent guardian for them instead… A keeper. Reminding them when to eat, pulling them to sleep, those kind of things he did.

 

His dad looked serene. His expression shifted from scrunching his face, scratching his chin, muttering under his breath and looking annoyed as he stared at the numbers, to eyes open wide in realization, lips quirking up in smile. Yet… he always looked like he belonged here, between this organized chaos of science, just like he looked belonged on the kitchen at mornings when he had to make breakfast to his children. His dad was a father and a scientist both, one could not exist without another.

 

It took Harry a few try to get the lighting correct. On his sketches, he made notes on each materials; from copper to steel to silver, what things reflected on those metals, his dad’s shirt made out of cotton. In a kind, he was making a schematic too. He kept going on and on, sketching and scribbling notes, until his dad called him.

 

After finished the stroke, Harry looked up from his sketchbook. “Yes?” 

 

“It’s time for coffee break. You want some?” his dad asked, two empty mugs dangling from his fingers. One of them had Oscorp Industries logo, while the other had ‘Super Dad’ printed on it.

 

“Sure”, Harry smiled, remembering that the ‘Super Dad’ mug was a joke gift from him and his sister for his dad’s birthday a year back. He didn’t know that his dad was still keeping it. His dad went to the coffee machine, so Harry focused back to his sketches. The earthy smell of coffee soon wafted in the air. It was quite calming, he found.

 

“It looks great”, his dad commented over his shoulders. Harry didn’t notice him coming but accepted the steaming mug of coffee gratefully.

 

“Thank you”, he said, both to the coffee and the compliment.

 

His dad cleared a part of the tabletop with a careless wipe of his hand before placing his own mug there. “May I?” he ask, offered a hand.

 

“Sure”, Harry handed over his sketchbook. He sipped on his coffee while his dad was flipping through his sketchbook, trying hard not to fidget. He was still feeling antsy showing off his works to people… within reasons, of course. He didn’t think his art was that good yet, so of course he would need other people’s input to grow and improve.

 

“Oh, wow. These look great. Are you sure you’re self-taught?” his dad asked. On his face was the same expression that he made when he looked at an equation. It was interesting.

 

“YouTube helps a lot”, Harry grinned. “Also those are only doodles. To find inspirations. I do the real thing on canvas.”

 

“I see that Peter is your inspiration, mostly”, his dad’s lips curved up in amusement.

 

Harry could feel his face heating up. His dad had to be on that section of his sketchbook. Harry peered and saw his dad was studying the pages which were mostly filled with Peter; Peter talking about science with Louise and Erica (though both girls were not shown in the sketch), Peter having a catfight with Sam, Peter biting on his pen as he was trying to do on his homework, Peter with his hair mussed and his face sleepy, Peter laughing, Peter frowning, Peter pouting… 

 

He pursed his lips. “Yeah, well. His face is interesting to draw”, he replied indignantly.

 

It did. Peter had the most interesting face with his dynamic expression and wild gesture. Even since they were young, Peter was always the expressive one between the Parker siblings. That he was simply beautiful, was a bonus to him.

 

“It’s okay if you fancy him”, his dad said, then added. “Though I had to admit, I used to think it’s weird that boys go out with boys and girls go out with girls. I’d never seen them much in my youth.”

 

He said it like people of marginalized sexuality were rare animals, Harry thought. He didn’t voice it out, and instead asked, “What changed your mind?”

 

“Both my children are gay—”

 

“Asexuals”, Harry corrected automatically.

 

“Asexuals, sorry. Both my children are asexuals who love people of same gender. I refuse to be your bully”, his dad smiled.

 

It wasn’t perfect. His dad needed a lot of reading about marginalized genders and sexualities. For once, gender did not have same meaning with sex. Harry and Erica were non-binaries, with Harry being agender and Erica being genderfluid, and thus not of the same gender with Peter and Louise. Secondly, Harry was an asexual-aromantic; he did not _love_ Peter, nor was he sexually attracted to him. His infatuation to Peter was evolved from the strong bond of their childhood friendship.

 

Still, he guessed that was enough for now. He knew not many parents would be so accepting.

 

“Thanks, Dad”, he smiled back. As he went back to his coffee, his dad continued with his skimming through the sketchbook.

 

“And who is this guy? You seem to sketch him a lot”, his dad wanted to know.

 

Which guy? Harry craned his neck to see what his dad was talking about. Oh.

 

“That’s Sam Alexander. He’s new kid at school. Same year with Erica. He sits with us on lunch a lot.” Then, as an afterthought, he added, “He’s chill. He came here once. Did you know that he thought we’re keeping a lion?”

 

“When is this?” his dad turned to him, his eyebrows furrowed.

 

“My birthday. Somehow the whole school was here”, Harry explained. When his dad frowned even deeper, Harry laughed. “You’re getting old, Dad. Big black gooey monster destroying the penthouse? I nearly fell a hundred stores down?”

 

“Ah. Yes, now I remember.” A chuckle, then. “Why lion?”

 

“Apparently rich people have lions. His words, not mine.” Which was quite a stereotype too. Louise was laughing until she was crying when Harry told her that. Needless to say, Sam was extremely embarrassed and would punch anyone who brought that up again.

 

“Interesting”, his dad hummed.

 


End file.
